111 lines
4.8 KiB
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111 lines
4.8 KiB
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<TITLE>FBB Packet-radio BBS mini-HOWTO: How to use LinFBB's "xfbbW", a GUI client for Windows</TITLE>
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<H2><A NAME="s8">8.</A> <A HREF="FBB.html#toc8">How to use LinFBB's "xfbbW", a GUI client for Windows</A></H2>
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<P>2002-11-17</P>
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<P><EM>Notice: Well, folks, I couldn't try to install and use
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LinFBB client for Windows, because I have not had
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a second computer for that purpose. The only way to
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check how this client works, was to borrow a laptop machine
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and give it a try.</EM></P>
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<P>The first task was to link that Windows laptop to a Linux
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desktop. I had some difficulties with the network card on
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the desktop box, because it seemed not to be likely to start
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the appropriate <B>eth0</B> interface. I'll give you some
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more details about the equipment here: Linux is Red Hat 6.2
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and my ISA network card has UMC UM9008 chip. Long ago, I
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used some utilities that should "recognize" ISA cards (if
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I remember their names, that were isapnptools, pnpdump etc).</P>
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<P>What I do know, is that such tools should have add some new
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lines into the existing files, like <B>/etc/conf.modules</B>
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or, to create some new files, like <B>/etc/isapnp*</B>.
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Well, I have forgotten what exactly should be done, so I
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went to look for the right tools. The one that was looking
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suitable was <B>/sbin/isapnp</B>. Although I got its
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response on the screen, telling that the UM9008 chip was
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recognized, there was nothing added to the system files,
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nor new files seemed to be created.</P>
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<P>What I also tried to use, was the old good <EM>Linuxconf</EM> tool, that
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was already installed per default within RH 6.2 Linux. I
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found the right place to add the information related to NIC's
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IRQ and I/O address. There I seemed to make a little mistake,
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so I put the value of <EM>220</EM> (for the I/O address), instead
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of <EM>0x220</EM> that would better fit. The result was as one
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may expect: the interface <B>eth0</B> continued to
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report that a <EM>ne</EM> module had not found a card
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at that one address. Then I checked the actual I/O address
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the card uses under Windows OS (was the same) and
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tried to fix the parameters (Thanks goes to a UK ham who advised
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me to have to let Linux know the proper IRQ and I/O
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addresses).</P>
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<P>Interestingly, <EM>Linuxconf</EM> added a couple of new lines
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into <B>/etc/conf.modules</B> too. In short, the next time
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during the system boot, the interface <B>eth0</B>
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reported a green <EM>[OK]</EM>, so I could
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establish the link. So far - so good.</P>
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<P>The next task was to download the client package from the
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FBB's main site. I did it from the <EM>"Newest version"</EM>
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web page and the number of the version was 1.12 (it
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seems that was not a pretty much new version, or maybe the
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content on that <EM>"newest"</EM> page has not been updated
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recently - another task for Jean-Paul?). Anyway, I installed it
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without any problem, configured its part related to the LinFBB
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server it was about to access, changed the console font to my
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favorite one (Tahoma) and started the utility.</P>
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<P>At the first sight, the client looked great, because
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Linux clients still prefer so small letters, that are
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hard to read (compared to characters on a Windows screen).
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Now I tried the most used commands like List, Read, Send Reply
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etc. All of them worked great. What I have found a bit
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strange, was that the <EM>message justification</EM> did
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not work in its message editor window. You see, I like
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my messages to be justified on both sides. I hope a solution
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for that problem will be found soon.</P>
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<P>Another issue with <EM>xfbbW</EM> client is that seems not to
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allow a multiple click onto more than one
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BBS callsign within <EM>pending forward</EM> list,
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comparing to WinFBB's behavior. You know, I am not very fond of
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opening the same <EM>pending forward</EM> window repeatedly
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again and again, in order to start (or to stop) more than
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one forwarding action.</P>
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<P>In general, I like <EM>xfbbW</EM> client. I hope to
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install some newer version(s) soon, and I hope some of
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its features will be upgraded and some new ones will be added
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in the future. What I would also like to have, is to
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activate the maintenance of the BBS (a "housekeeping" task)
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from that client's menu. Another thing I miss at the moment, is the
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absence of the <EM>xfbbW</EM>'s help system. I mean
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of a <EM>real</EM> Windows help, because there's not
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much use of a <EM>Help</EM> menu, having only
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<EM>Copyright</EM> and <EM>About</EM> information :-))</P>
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